"I've always been hopeful there'd be a season until there is, but right now, we just have to leave it in the hands of the people that are talking," Lamoriello said.

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Larry Tanenbaum, who was in Tuesday's meeting, said it "absolutely" provided more clarity on each side's position.

"We're going to continue to talk, up until we get a deal," Tanenbaum said, without providing a timetable. "As long as we're talking, we're hopeful."

Perhaps the best sign: Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, a labor hardliner and one of the breakout villains of the 81-day-and-counting lockout, didn't say anything.

One subject of Wednesday's meeting—a schedule if a deal is truck. One executive told ESPN.com that a 50-plus game schedule was possible, which would imply a start date in the next two weeks. More will be known later on Wednesday, after the same group of owners and players meet for further negotiations—negotiations that lasted around 10 hours on Tuesday night and, according to multiple reports, were both more positive and more specific than expected.

Bettman, publicly, was brief.

"We are pleased with the process," he said in a 30-secondish statement around 1:50 p.m. He didn't take any questions out of what he called respect for the process.

Even though both the league and union have proposed a 50-50 split of revenues, they remain separated on payments to be made outside the system to help ease the transition from the previous deal, which saw players receive 57 percent. The NHL has offered $211 million in deferred compensation while the union has asked for $393 million.

There are also a number of rules governing player contracts that must be worked out before a new CBA is signed. The NHL is seeking a five-year limit on deals, regulations designed to prevent players from signing lucrative extensions after two or three seasons in the league, and a 5 percent maximum on year-to-year variance in salary, which would prevent artificially long, cap-circumventing deals.